Epic Games, the creator of the popular game Fortnite, has partnered with car manufacturers to develop automotive software based on the Unreal Engine. Epic's first partner in the human-machine interface (HMI) initiative is General Motors, and the first car with an Unreal Engine multimedia system will be the electric Hummer EV, which will be presented on October 20.
The logic of creating an HMI based on Unreal Engine is based on the fact that modern cars use on-board computers with appropriate software, and the driver interacts with the vehicle through touch displays and digital interfaces, on the basis of which infotainment centers and other information systems are built. At the same time, Unreal Engine is a platform that, according to Epic, is great for creating automotive software.
Epic Games believes that automakers and automotive software developers can achieve more in less time using the Unreal Engine platform. It is also noted that some progress in the development of software solutions as part of the HMI creation initiative is already visible. For example, infotainment systems built using the Epic game engine launch and run significantly faster. This is due to the fact that the Unreal Engine allows you to run individual pieces of software in sequential order, and not all together, as is the case in traditional solutions. Simply put, the loading of content that is not required at system startup is postponed to a later time, due to which there is an acceleration in work.
Since Unreal Engine is designed to provide photorealistic computer graphics, automotive software based on it can display high-quality renderings of a car, as well as its individual internal and external elements on displays inside the cabin. Epic says the partnership with General Motors is based on a prediction that in the future, autonomous vehicles will make the driving process less important, and the actions that the driver can perform while in the cabin will come to the fore. The vehicle will be controlled by special algorithms. With an emphasis on this, the company is developing its new software. And so the company is interested in the Unreal Engine being positioned as the basis for creating various kinds of functions that will be part of the multimedia systems of the future.
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Source: 3dnews.ru